West Bromwich Albion Fan View: Lack of finishing is costing the Baggies

After West Bromwich Albion gained four points from their games against Arsenal and Manchester United, Albion fans were excited to see the team push on and finish the season strongly, but back-to-back defeats have dampened the mood once again.

And it all looked so good, solid in defence versus Manchester United and dangerous on the break versus Arsenal, but the two performances that followed have been disappointing.

Since reaching the magical 40 point mark, Tony Pulis’ side have won just a single game (Arsenal), and have suffered back-to-back defeats twice in two months. This latest poor run has a worrying trend, with the Baggies failing to score for the third straight league game.

Fans have been asking, ‘how can we beat Arsenal and then lose to Watford and Southampton?’, well it’s all to do with finishing, and taking your chances when they arrive.

In the win against Arsenal, two of our three goals came from set-pieces, and we created ten chances overall.

In the losses to Watford and Southampton, the team created a total of 18 chances, with 29 shots on our opponents goal, but only eight of those shots even hit the target.

The thing is, West Brom aren’t a team that create a lot of chances, in fact we’re 14th in the league in terms of chances created.

What this means, is that when we do get a good chance, its crucial that we’re as clinical as possible, as we may not get another chance to win the game.

Against Watford, Nacer Chadli could have easily had a hat-trick, had his finishing been more clinical. Even against Southampton, we created a few good chances, with Rondon and Dawson forcing good saves from Fraser Forster.